As I was going through some of my devotional books, I discovered a small book on friendship that a dear friend gave me on my birthday over 40 years ago.  I read her sweet note she inscribed on the inside cover of the book and realized how important our friendship was while we were in high school.  

The book is entitled, “The Treasure of Friendship,” Favorite Writings about Enjoying and Keeping Friends, selected by Peter Syemour.  I wanted to share a few of these writings with you today and ask you to think about what friendship means to you.  Who is your best friend, or perhaps you have several best friends?  What makes them so special?  Why are they your friend and what qualities make their friendship important to you?  

The only way to have a friend is to be one.  

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have another dear friend whose friendship I’ve had the great fortune to be a part of for over 50 years.  It’s interesting, our lives have taken us to many places around the world, and yet we have remained friends through it all.  We don’t often have a chance to get together, but when we do, it’s like we have never been apart.  Our conversations pick right up and we are those silly young girls again that would sit and talk for hours.  I hope and pray that you have a friend like that, perhaps you have more than just one, praise God if you do.  Be thankful for friends, we need them now more than ever.  

Below is a selection from the book that so beautifully describes the type of friend that I hope you have and perhaps the type of friend that you are.

A Friends’ Greeting

I’d like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me’
I’d like to be the help that you’ve been always glad to be;
I’d like to mean as much to you each minute of the day
As you have meant, old friend of mine, to me along the way.

I’d like to do the big things and the splendid things for you,
To brush the gray from out your skies and leave them only blue;
I’d like to say the kindly things that I  so oft have heard,
And feel that I could rouse your soul the way that mine you’ve stirred.

I’d like to give you back the joy that you have given me,
Yet that were wishing you a need I hope will never be;
I’d like to make you feel as rich as I, who travel on
Undaunted in the darkest hours with you to lean upon.

I’m wishing as the days go on that I could but repay
A portion of the gladness that you’ve strewn along my way;
And could I have one wish this year, this only would it be:
I’d like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me.

Edgar A. Guest

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to recognize that friends come and go, sometimes you meet a friend and they impact your life so profoundly and yet they leave as quickly as they came.  Other friends will just step across the threshold of “acquaintance”, and as you hold them with high regard, their friendship may fall short of your expectations.  And of course, there will be others that are sweet, special friends but are not close enough to describe as a “best friend.”  

A dear friend is one that sees into your eyes and knows exactly what your soul is thinking, no words needed, the silence is conversation enough.  

A favorite Girl Scout song shares the idea of friendship in the words, written by Joseph Parry.  He said, “Make new friends but keep the old; those are silver; these are gold.”   If you were a Girl Scout, you may recall editing those words and singing “Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold,” as you sat around a campfire eating s’mores.     

My prayer for you is that you will savor your friends, love them, care for them, and always be there for them, just as I hope and pray they will be there for you. 

I would like to share this final tribute to friendships with you.

Thank You, Friend
I never came to you, my Friend,
And went away without
Some new enrichment of the heart;
More faith, and less of doubt,
More courage for the days ahead,
And often in great need
Coming to you, I went away
Comforted, indeed
How can I find the shining words,
The glowing phrase that tells
All that your love has meant to me,
All that your friendship spells
There is no word, no praise for you
On whom I so depend
All I can say to you is this
God bless you, precious friend.

Grace Noll Crowell

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